BioWare games are known to be big, epic RPG-adventures like Dragon Age and Mass Effect. These games win the heart and mind of anyone lucky enough to sit down and play them, and undoubtedly Anthem has a chance of doing the same thing. Even if you plan on just doing the bare essentials of quests in a BioWare game, skipping everything else, you’d be lucky to complete their games under the 15-hour mark. Just to make it clear, their a big AAA studio with big ideas and even bigger games. But their games could actually be much smaller in the future.
Speaking to Game Informer, Anthem’s executive producer Mark Darrah explained that the reason for potential smaller games is that they “don’t want to become just one note.” Casey Hudson, BioWare’s general manager, also expanded on this by saying that thanks to EA and the industry constantly evolving they’ve been given openings that will allow them to develop more “experimental works.” Neither of the men conveyed what these experiments would be, though Hudson did mention that perhaps BioWare would produce a short film in the future.
This may just be the change that BioWare needs, as smaller projects will allow them to explore and try new things in a way that not even AAA projects can. It, of course, will be much less expensive to make these projects into a reality unlike games such as Mass Effect and Dragon Age, or even Anthem.
Mark Darrah also commented on how he’d like to see AAA studios focus on smaller titles. He stated, “there are things people can do in the indie space that are kind off-limits in the HD space, just because people’s expectations rise with, not just the budgets, but with the studio. He continued, “I think there’s a middle ground. I’ve heard it called AAA-indie, which is that high production value but still smaller scale, smaller budget. There are very few games in that space right now. I think there’s an opportunity for more AAA stuff to be in there.”
When BioWare will traverse into these new waters, we’re not sure. But we’ll be certain to keep an eye out for BioWare’s smaller projects in the future.
